Kennebunk Joins Trend of Focusing on Prostitution Clients

By |October 14, 2012

Gone are the days of the nameless, faceless “john,” says the Associated Press. Men who buy sex may end up with their faces on the Internet or in the newspaper. Kennebunk, Me., is shaken up by police promises to reveal identities of dozens of clients of a fitness instructor accused of prostitution–just the latest place to use public shaming. Fresno, Ca., runs a website called “Operation Reveal” with mug shots of suspected johns. Oklahoma City has the vigilante-style “JohnTV.” An Arlington, Tx., billboard declares, “This could be you” under the picture of four suspects.

More than 870 municipalities that have launched initiatives targeting men who hire prostitutes. Surveys at 200 police departments since 2008 found most consider targeting customers the best way to curb prostitution, because they fear publicity more than fines or even jail time. It continues a long-developing trend away from prosecuting the “supply” side – the prostitutes themselves – and targeting the demand. “What they usually ask is, `Is my wife going to find out? Is my boss going to find out? Is my name going to be in the paper?'” said Michael Shively, who ran a study funded by the National Institute of Justice. In Kennebunk, Alexis Wright, 29, is accused of operating a prostitution business out of a Zumba studio, videotaping encounters and keeping meticulous records of her clients. Police plan to release more than 100 names little by little over the next several weeks.

TCR's WEEKLY Criminal Justice Newsletter is FREE! Subscribe Here

Read Next

A Supreme Court ruling in June overruled the conviction of a sex offender for violating his probation after posting on Facebook. But that opens up a new legal minefield over limitations on internet access for anyone convicted of a crime, warns a Washington, DC attorney.

Comments are closed.

TCR AT A GLANCE

The annual award, which honors individuals in the media or media-related fields who have advanced national understanding of the 21st-century challenges of criminal justice, will be presented at a John Jay College dinner Feb. 15. Moyers was most recently executive producer of "Rikers," a documentary on New York's troubled jail facility.

A California study rebuts arguments that urban counties which limit or refuse cooperation with immigration authorities in reporting undocumented immigrants are breeding grounds for crime. In particular, white residents of sanctuary cities are 62 percent less likely to die from gun violence than their counterparts elsewhere, the study found.

The Sentencing Project released a report Wednesday assailing the grievous lack of medical treatment for addiction in prisons and jails, hours before the newly appointed Bureau of Prisons director was scheduled to testify before the House of Representatives.

President Trump's opioid commission favors more drug courts in the federal judicial sytem, where they are scarce. Some state drug courts are quick to send participants who relapse to prison, which critics say defeats the program's purpose.

There never has been a successful suicide bombing on U.S. soil. Since 9/11, there has only been a single suicide attack in the U.S., a domestic act of terror involving an airplane that did not involve warped religious beliefs.